The Collective of Tau Allied Worlds
The Collective is one of the largest Tau-allied groups in the entire Eastern Fringe but lacks the power to fend of an attack by the Imperium on its own. History Founding In the aftermath of the Damocles Crusade large areas of space were abandoned by the Imperium as they strived to find enough forces to fight off the Tyranids. One of these Sectors was the Aegis sector, a powerful Sector with a large PDF. The sector government knew that they would be able to fight off a small Tau force but if they arrived in larger numbers the Sector would be wiped out. Knowing this the Sector government took the decision to break away from the Imperium and offer their men to the Tau. The Tau accepted the offer and the sector became a protectorate of the Tau Empire maintaining its own defense force and government while still supplying goods extra to the Empire. At this time the government chose to take the name of the Collective of Tau Allied Worlds. Arrival Of Ironhand In late M41 one the last operating Imperial Lord Generals in the area began an assault on the Collective. Known as Ironhand to his men and "That Bugger Who Left Us for Dead" by the Collective, he launched an assault directly at the Collective hoping to find at least a few Imperial survivors. What he found in the sector shocked him to the core. In the 200-odd years since its abandonment the Sector had flourished and Ironhand's ships arrived in the middle of a fleet exercise. The ships Ironhand had arrived in the middle off resembled Imperial Cruisers and Ironhand transmitted a signal to them. Now knowing who this intruder was the Collective ships broadcast a surrender message. Ironhand refused the surrender message and his battleship opened fire.The Collective ships returned fire and damaged Ironhand's flagship, forcing it to launch drop pods. These drop pods landed on the world of Alis and Ironhand quickly took control of the capital city. The collective fleet now blockaded the planet and forced Ironhand to surrender. Ironhand was offered a position of power in the collective and quickly took control of the collectives military. Expansion Ironhand's first decision as commander of the collective was to launch an attack on nearby imperial sectors. When he arrived the sector governors welcomed him as a hero and when he turned on them and took control of the sector they were powerless to defend themselves. With this large number of resources Ironhand began a massive program of construction. Ironhand integrated the massively more powerful Tau weapons into ships with Imperial hulls, void shields, Tau tracking systems, gravimetric hooks and launchers. Ironhand chose to use Tau warp drives in his ships as it removed the need for navigators and he had always distrusted Psykers. Ironhand also chose to expand the Collective's army using Tau anti-gravity tech and pulse weapons as well as conscripts from his newly conquered worlds. Now with his much increased army and navy Ironhand began to plan an assault into other Imperial sectors. Reasons for Ironhands betrayal of the Imperium have never been confirmed but rumors include torture, brainwashing, ransom and simple hatred of the society that oppressed him. Imperial Counterattack Ironhand met with the govenor the neerby sub-sector Arias to try and convince him to join the collective without a fight.The govenor refused and said that his forces would overrun the collective and return it to its rightfull owners.Ironhand famously responded to this with the response."Nothing but a full scale crusade will remove me from power!".Shortly after this the sector was crushed bringing another sub-sector and the military that acompanied it into the collective. Ironhand was to regret his words as 10 years later the imperium's hammer smashed into the eastern edge of the collective. Army Organization The collectives military is very similar to that of Imperium with it split into the army and navy. The names of ranks are very similar to the imperial equivalent and they generally share the same job. Ranks *'Commander/Lord general' - There is only ever one collective commander and they are usually imperial generals/lord generals who have defected. *'Marshall/General' - A marshal has control over a sectors military and are normally the highest ranked indigenous people. *'Colonel' - A colonel is in charge of a regiment and sometimes acts as an area commander. *'Major' - Senior officer who is in charge of a company of men. *'Captain' - Junior officer in charge of a platoon. *'Sergeant' - Squad leader *'Warrior' - Basic trooper. Strength The Collectives military is made up of 4 task forces with roughly the same amount of forces. *Task Force 1 consisting of: **1st Aegis Infantry ***5000 Infantry ***1000 support staff ***500 Paladin Transport Vehicles **2nd Aegis Infantry ***5000 Infantry ***1000 support staff ***500 Paladin Transport Vehicles **3rd Aegis Infantry ***5000 Infantry ***1000 support staff ***500 Paladin Transport Vehicles **4th Aegis Infantry ***5000 Infantry ***1000 support staff ***500 Paladin Transport Vehicles **5th Aegis Infantry ***5000 Infantry ***1000 support staff ***500 Paladin Transport Vehicles **1st Aegis Elite ***6000 Elite Infantry ***500 Support Staff ***600 Reaper Skimmers **1st Aegis Airborne ***5000 airborne ***500 Vespid Class Gunships **1st Aegis Armored ***1000 Lance Battle Tanks ***200 Reaper Skimmers ***400 Goliath Walkers **1st Super Heavy Detachment ***10 Gargantuan Class Walkers Types Of Vehicles and equipment Used Paladin Transport Vehicles The paladin transport vehicle is a robust design based on the imperial chimera.It runs on tracks and resembles some of the tanks from the early days of the dark age of technology.Armed with a battery of tau missile pods and with seats for a squad of 10 the paladin delivers the collectives men into the heart of battle without a scratch then withdraws to provide covering fire. Reaper Skimmers Reaper skimmers are the most advanced vehicles in the collectives army.Based on the imperial chimeras like there less advanced brothers the paladin class they sacrifice the tracks and heavy armour on the paladin for anti grav drive and a single boardside railgun.The reaper has seats for 10 and delivers men strait into the heart of battle before quickly withdrawing. Lance Battle Tank The lance makes up the main battle line of the collectives force acting as everything from a battle tank to artillery suport.Based on the imperial Leman Russ the battle canon has been striped out and replaced with a hammerhead railgun while the sponsons can be fitted with either a burst cannon or missile pod. Goliath Walkers One the most sucsessfull tau inventions was the battlesuit and the goliath is the Collectives version of the heavily sucsessfull battlesuit.The tau redesigned the mind link so that it could be interfaced with a human and used by them.Unlike most collective equipment the goliath uses human technology and is armed with a battle-cannon and 2 heavy bolters. Gargantuan Walker The most powerfull unit in the collectives army.The gargantuan is the equivilant of the tau orca in armamant or the imperial warhound in size.Armed with a massively more powerfull version of the normal railgun as its primary weapon it carries a secondry armanant of 2 ion cannons and several missile pods. Fleet The Collective has a large fleet that is made up of a mix of Imperial ships refitted by the Tau and purpose-built vessels designed by ex-Imperial architects and Tau engineers. *2 Ironside Class Battleships (Ex-Imperial battleships refitted with Tau tech). *4 Gargantuan Class Battle Cruisers (Purpose built designs based around the Imperial Overlord Class). *8 Imperator class cruisers.(Purpose built designs using mainly tau tech) *32 Capitulator class destroyers.(Imperial destroyers converted with tau tech) *128 freedom class frigates.(Almost all imperial ships with only warp drive replacements) Category:Organizations Category:Tau Empire